What struck me over the four and a half days was the focus on using the arts to enhance community health, especially amongst older adults, people living with chronic illness and disabilities, and amongst the Aboriginal peoples. By contrast, in our country arts in healthcare initiatives are more focused within the healthcare setting to support patient well-being, enhance hospital community relations, and, increasingly, to improve the working environment for healthcare staff.

I met many people who have been working in community health for over 20 years, what was new for most was the chance to meet others doing similar work and exchanging ideas and experiences. Creative Healing Connections’ retreats for women living with cancer and other chronic diseases, which has been supported by the Adirondack Medical Center Foundation since its inception, and the use of the arts by the Lake Placid-Wilmington Connecting Youth and Community (CYC) in its efforts to reduce the use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs by children represent two examples of how the arts are used to enhance community health in our region.

As an example of their initiatives, in Tasmania fatalities caused by young men driving at high speeds under the influence is of grave concern. As you can imagine the consequences have been horrific. Health officials, partnering with filmmakers and the police, have used documentary film techniques to engage at-risk-young men in a process of holding up a mirror to their own behavior through interviewing on film people whose lives have been affected by such behavior; families, ambulance and other rescue workers, bystanders, property owners and survivors. They begin by zeroing in on a roadside memorial, a cross covered with flowers and pictures, and getting the survivors to tell the story behind the death and its consequences — films that are shown to and discussed with at-risk youth.

Not all approaches are so tough nor less moving. Professor Sophia Law of the department of Visual Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong showed how their Art in Hospital program sent a delegation of artists, creative arts therapists, and theatre artists to help the thousands of young survivors of the Sichuan earthquake, many of whom lost their entire family, how to express their emotions and grief through the arts. It was remarkable to see amongst the rumble the children’s creative output now decorating the sides of makeshift hospitals and schools which gave hope to so many in a manner much like the first buds of life pushing through the ground after a forest fire.

On a more humorous note, was the inspired musical Hey Florence! created and sung by nurses from the Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. The project came out of a chance meeting between Donna Glassford, director of cultural enrichment at Vanderbilt, and the Australian playwright and songwriter Craig Christie. This lead to a residency by Christie at the hospital where he interviewed and trailed nurses during their rounds, and later recruited and cast nurses for the musical, which was premiered at the hospital to great critical acclaim. The musical described the world of nursing in a way that was amusing, moving and innovative while showcasing heretofore hidden talents. Thinking that this might be something that our local nurses might enjoy, I picked up a copy of the music. Who knows, collaboration between Pendragon and AMC may be in the offering.

In Victoria, the Australian National University School of Music created a program that engaged at-risk middle and high school boys in singing songs for residents at an elder care facility. They began first by getting high school age boys to sing with middle school age boys, and to then perform together for people in need, in this case people in a nursing home. The focus of the program was to measure the socio-therapeutic benefits for such activities both for the mixed-ages of boys, and for the adults, the idea being to get the boys engaged in activities for the benefit of someone other than themselves. Imagine a mix of boys drawn from our bantam and high school hockey programs singing at Ulhein to get a picture of what took place. While the music itself wasn’t the most polished, which wasn’t a goal in any case, the pleasure in performing and the performance was palpable.

In the nearly 80 sessions held, the variety on initiatives was truly inspiring as were the many hospitality events built in to allow for informal sharing and furthering questioning about the sessions seen. I found great interest in Creative Healing Connections’ and Patriot Hills of Saranac Lake’s fledgling efforts to use the arts to support the reintegration into society of our veterans and efforts to build resiliency in our active duty soldiers and their families; challenges of keen interest in particular by the Australian and United Kingdom delegations. Clearly the discussions will continue and I suspect ideas of activities will be seeded on both sides of the world.